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PAPUA

‘The State of Freeport’ – A Fait Accompli

Tragedy
Radio Netherlands | Military Aggression | Tue, March 07 2006, 13:13 PM

Written by Aboeprijadi SantosoMar 7 · 3 min read 

Photo: gannett cdn

Papua is a synonym for a fait accompli tragedy. It is frequently forced into situations by
external forces which then become immutable. First, the Dutch came and it was forced
to become part of the Dutch East Indies, and then to become part of the Republic as the
result of New Order-style trickery, but which was accepted as legitimate by the rest of
the world.

The third fait accompli was the operations of a major corporation which combined local
political and economic interests with (multi-)national interests to exploit its natural
resources for the benefit of everyone excepting the local people but which also brought
Papua a multidimensional disaster, a tragedy called Freeport.
No longer keeping quiet For two weeks, there has been uproar in Papua. It all began
when a number of men panning for gold in the operational area of the mighty US
copper and gold company, Freeport McMoran Copper and Gold Inc. were arrested.

It subsequently turned out that they had come there to pan thanks to the efforts of an
army unit in charge of guarding the Freeport mine.

So, this means that these illegal panners were rounded up by the very same army unit
that had brought them there in the first place? The reason? They were accused of being
from the OPM, Organisasi Papua Merdeka.

But if they were OPM, why had they been brought there? Outsiders, people from Jakarta
or from overseas, are in the habit of using NKRI (United State of the Republic of
Indonesia) as nothing more than a slogan, proclaiming that ‘it must be the OPM’. Isn’t
that what is undermining the NKRI? So what more do you want?

But when you talk about the “OPM”, it means that there is no security, while the lack of
security is the reason for increasing their bill for taking charge of Freeport’s security.

Papuan people who are well aware of the dynamic in Papua have known about this for
a long time. But this time they are no longer staying quiet.

‘This has been army’s way in Papua for decades,’ they say. And they have been speaking
out not only to the media but also in the streets. Not only in Wamena, but also in
Nabire, Jayapura, Manokwari, Makassar, Jogjakarta and Jakarta. They are calling for
Freeport to be closed down because they see the company here as ‘The State of
Freeport’.

Is ‘The State of Freeport identical with the New Order?

The company that is running one of the world’s biggest gold mines is more than simply
a business enterprise. It is situated in a very remote region, on a mountain called
Grasberg, on the slopes of the Central Highlands.

Its history is amazing. This was the very first foreign investment concluded under the
New Order, which was signed at a time when Papua (West Irian) was still in limbo, on 1
April 1967, still awaiting the results of the Act of Free Choice in 1969.

Today, according to a report in The Australian, Freeport’s annual income is US$4.2

billion, with a profit of US$934.6 million. Whereas the New Order began life with the
tragic massacres in 1965-66, it began its accumulation of wealth from the natural
resources with Freeport’s arrival in Papua.

Freeport is more than a fait accompli tragedy. It arrived along with the New Order under
the centralist military rubric of NKRI. With its headquarters in Louisiana in the US, it
operates in the depths of the Papuan jungle, on the slopes of Grasberg. No journalists
have ever entered the area. You can only glimpse Grasberg with the help of Google.

During its lifetime, Freeport has earned the third largest profits in this Republic while
lining the pockets of the Soeharto Family and the army.

Since the 1980s, thanks to the efforts of Soeharto’s son-in-law, Major General Prabowo,
Freeport has paid money to the local military command, army units and police which
have guarded Freeport, in violation of American law, though such laws do not exist in
Indonesia. Freeport’s operations have never been transparent and with good reason.

Freeport is also part of the mechanism of the New Order and its operations would
never have been possible without the New Order regime, with its NKRI centralism. So,
like it or not, Freeport is a kind of state.

Thanks to Google, we know that the men panning for gold, other outsiders and even the
local inhabitants cannot enter the area of Freeport operations, high up in the mountains
and heavily guarded by the army, excepting when these panners are brought there by
the men guarding Freeport. And according to Papuan observer, Dr Benny Giay, ‘in the
territory of Freeport, the army is God’.

Thanks to an article in The New York Times last December, we know all about the
privileged position of Freeport ever since the New Order because of their exceptional
contract.

Contract must be revised

Now, the people in the Central Highlands are furious. Movements have emerged that
have been inspired by the struggles of America’s civil rights fighter, Martin Luther King
and are occurring in Papua as well as in towns and cities in Java and Sulawesi. Now, they
are angry with Freeport and with the army who is in control of Freeport.

Several months ago, a young boy from the locality was shot in Waghete, and the man
who shot him received a light sentence. Even worse was the detention of a dozen or
more people together with Antonius Wamang, charged with the murder of US citizens,
teachers at a school near Timika, in August 2002.

According to the police chief at the time, I Made Mangku Pastika, the perpetrators were
a group of TNI soldiers but after the US exerted continual pressure on Jakarta for the
arrest and trial of the perpetrators, Jakarta brought forward Wamang and a number of
Papuans, who were not the real perpetrators.

These are the events that resulted in the Central Highlands protest calling for Freeport
to be closed down.
Of course, the government in Jakarta does not like the idea of losing this highly
profitable resource, while Freeport for its part is not happy about losing an investment
which is now worth $US 12 billion. So once again, Papua is caught in a fait accompli.

No wonder, the demand being made Central Highland Papuans is being interpreted as a
demand for the revision of Indonesia’s contract with Freeport.

That’s Freeport for you!

English Indonesia Papua

Written by Aboeprijadi Santoso

Independent Journalist in the Fields of Anthropology, Political History, Political Science

and Social History. Formerly with Radio Netherlands.Profile